Evaluation of the effectiveness of pregabalin in alleviating pain associated with fibromyalgia: using functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

By Seong-Ho Kim, et al.

Abstract:

PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy of pregabalin by showing differences in the neuronal activities of fibromyalgia (FM) patients before and after longitudinal treatment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

RESULTS: Clinical scores were reduced significantly following therapy with five of the six clinical tests (FIQ, BFI, BDI, WPI, SSS; p < 0.05). Brain activation post-treatment was significantly lower than that pre-treatment in 13 regions of the brain (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that pregabalin influences aspects of the whole pain matrix, using fMRI, inducing longitudinal changes in neuronal activity during the pain state, and that it reduces pain and other core symptoms of FM. This method could be applied to other longitudinal clinical trials of pharmacological treatments for FM.